AMD Opteron 165 System Thoughts

Someone that does not want to use SLI? Smart one!!

The Opteron 165 is a great CPU and it overclocks really well. Assuming you want to overclock it, go with the OCZ RAM. It will O/C much better than the Corsair Value RAM. Make sure you get 2 x 1GB and not just 1 2GB stick.

As for motherboard, all 3 are good choices, but I am partial to Asus. I have never had any problems with Asus products, they include eveything you would ever possibly need cable wise with their boards, and they are generally good quality. The A8N-E is agood deal at $95 (newegg).

Video card is a good choice, 7900s are sweet cards, and the GT will outperform (or come close) to the 7800GTX. PSU is fine as well.

Monitor looks like a great deal on Newegg. Don't have any experience with Hyundai, but it gets good reviews. As for hard drive, brand does not really matter, the only thing I would go for is an SATA 3.0gb/s drive with a 16MB cache. I perfer Seagate drives (mainly for the 5 year warranty) but WD is ok too.

i've found that Corsair XMS3200 Pro DDR is very good ram for overclocking, althought it is quite costly.

The 7900GT should be quite nice, as it gives ~5-10% better than 7800GTX performance for a nice $300 price....

ENjoy the rig!

For the screen go check DELL UltraSharp 2005FPW 20.1-inch Wide Aspect Flat Panel LCD Monitor at 423$. You might consider an ATI 1900XT for the video card...

Hi!
I just (1.5 weeks ago) put together a system based on a opty 165. Im using it for a variety of things among them playing games ...

I use 2x1 selectra CL2.5 ram. Sure, not top brand, but it easily copes with 230+ FSB just by bumbing to CL3 (when running @2.493 GHz). I know you can do this alot more serious, but i settled for this at the moment since it still is a decent OC... (39%)

My point is, stay away from (too) expensive memory if your on a budget.

I also got a Sapphire x800GTO2, again far from high end, but a really good value. And since i also use a 19" LCD@1280, it provides the power for almost any game.

Case and PSU; i bought the antec p150. it comes with a 430w PSU which is really silent. actually the whole system is (except maybe from the stock HSF but its not that bad).

alltogether, a really high performing and quiet PC (yes, I know im just a fart compared to you serious OC guys).
And considering the GPU, since the res. is limiting the need for a more radical GPU at this point, I went for a "cheap" card, which i can rip out and replace with a new one without bad feelings in 6 months or so if needed...


Good luck

The Lanparty Ultra-D will give you more bios options for overclocking than the Ultra-Infinity and you don't have to pay for SLi. If OCing is a priority I would go that route.

Dont worry about ram if your motherboard has a ram divider. Overclocking the ram on an AMD system is stupid. As AMD excells due to low latency memory timings with the on chip memory controller. You OC the RAM and fatten up the timings hurting performance. Just get some good brand name PC3200 DDR RAM and your golden.

I'm partial to Asus. I have an Opty 165 running on an Asus board and I'm very happy with its stability when overclocked. Nothing against the others, but I actually have experience with the Asus.

As far as ram, if you are overclocking, go with the OCZ. The Corsair value ram will overclock, but likely the memory divider will be less than if you had the OCZ.

YES! I didn't want to say anything about me not OCing my ram cause I thought I would get some flak. Yah there's no question about it, I'm not OCing the ram.

And I'm guessing all DFI have ram dividers??
dumb question, just want to be 100% sure.

The cheapest ram I can find right now is OCZ EL PC3200 2GB, so I'll just keep looking for quality company ram (corsair, ocz, crucial).

my setup


dfi landparty ultra d
opty 165
ocz 2gig dual channel (2-3-2-5)
ocz 520watt psu
sapphire x1900xtx

after tweaking im stable @2.8ghz with 1.45volts, you need a dfi mobo to hit 2.8ghz with a 165 because of the 9x multiplyer. I like asus mobos but they cant handle over 300fsb, thats what you need to get to 2.8ghz with a opty 165.

oh yeah, I run my memory @ 208mhz (311htt/fsb) with a 2/3 divider, on any a64/opteron the memory controler is on the cpu, so you dont need to oc the memory.

3dmark05 12k
3dmark 06 6k

Oh I've been looking at that monitor for sooooo long, it looks so good. But here it's going for $552, so I'm gonna stick with Hyundai for $345

All premium boards have diveders, however the steps between the values differs. I use a A8N sli premium board. to match the increased FSB speed, the memory divider has to be lowered (you know this already). The step below 400 is 333 which is a slight overclock with my FSB.

so in the end, even if your not planning to OC the RAM, good ram with som headroom will make it easier to find a good FSB/ divider combination (and hence not having to Underclock your ram)

You can buy it if you make some compromise. (price from NCIX)

Case: ANTEC SLK3000B -60$
Power supply: Antec Neo HE500 High Efficiency -55$
ASUS A8N-E Motherboard -30$

You are now missing 90$ (+tx and shipping...). What are you doing with the old parts? You could sell them on ebay and buy the screen!

Just my two cents... Even without the screen, your system will kick a...

Yah but I'd rather spend more money on the mobo and case cause I love the Tsunami and I'm definitely get the DFI mobo b/c its the best for overclocking.

And the Hyundai has a fast response time at 8ms for both g-g & b-w-b and has 700:1 contrast ratio. And for the price it's the best IMO.